What do you think?
Rate this book
Bitter Lake
In this novel set in a mill town with the tangled greenery of Pennsylvania's wooded hills as backdrop, Judith Hutchins and her daughters struggle with the latest disappearance of Gort—fisherman, astronomer, and sometime husband and father. Headstrong and severe, fourteen-year-old Lil cannot accept her father's absence or her mother's reaction to it. Judith, devoting herself to a new job to keep the family going, finds herself involved with a lover, while Lil takes matters into her own hands, determined to find her father and bring him to account.
Told in the alternating voices of Judith and Lil, the novel is a story of the resilience of love, of forgiveness in families, of the roundabout ways in which people connect.
Told in the alternating voices of Judith and Lil, the novel is a story of the resilience of love, of forgiveness in families, of the roundabout ways in which people connect.
264 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1996
1 person is currently reading
9 people want to read
About the author
Ann Harleman
5 books7 followersAnn Harleman is the author of two story collections, THOREAU'S LAUNDRY, and HAPPINESS (which won the Iowa Short Fiction Award); and two novels, THE YEAR SHE DISAPPEARED, and BITTER LAKE. Among her awards are Guggenheim and Rockefeller fellowships, the Berlin Prize in Literature, the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award, and the O. Henry Award.
Ann was the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in linguistics from Princeton University, and she has lived and worked behind the Iron Curtain and (much more happily) in Italy.
After two decades teaching fiction writing at the Rhode Island School of Design, Ann is currently on the faculty of Brown University. She makes her home within sight of San Francisco Bay.
Ann was the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in linguistics from Princeton University, and she has lived and worked behind the Iron Curtain and (much more happily) in Italy.
After two decades teaching fiction writing at the Rhode Island School of Design, Ann is currently on the faculty of Brown University. She makes her home within sight of San Francisco Bay.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 26, 2016
This quote still sticks in my mind, many years after reading Bitter Lake:
"I thought of how she'd been at three, at six, at nine. No one warns you about the losses. No one tells you you'll miss them, those earlier children. They disappear, but are they still there, sealed one inside the next like those little wooden Russian dolls?"
One good quote, but generally unlikable characters and fuzzy sequencing made for a difficult read -- kept thinking it HAD to get better, but it didn’t.
"I thought of how she'd been at three, at six, at nine. No one warns you about the losses. No one tells you you'll miss them, those earlier children. They disappear, but are they still there, sealed one inside the next like those little wooden Russian dolls?"
One good quote, but generally unlikable characters and fuzzy sequencing made for a difficult read -- kept thinking it HAD to get better, but it didn’t.
Displaying 1 of 1 review